Cuban Bogeyman Rides Again Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - JosePertierra@aol.com Chicago Tribune - May 9, 2002 Editorial: Cuban Bogeyman Rides Again Charges by the Bush administration that Cuba is developing biological weapons and cooperating with rogue states interested in using them could be plausible. Cuba has a well-known medical industry and the manufacture and delivery of biological agents is far less costly and complex than nuclear or even many conventional weapons. Rig up a Cessna with nozzles and a tankload of deadly crud and you're in business. Yet such accusations--particularly when offered without a shred of proof or elaboration--sound like another tedious episode in the war of words between the two countries. Coming days before former President Jimmy Carter is to go to Cuba, and amid growing congressional sentiment to lift trade restrictions against the island, this latest round of charges begins to look like a political stunt. The charges were leveled Monday by State Department arms control chief John R. Bolton during a speech to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in the capital. He offered no concrete proof, just circumstantial allegations such as this: Castro visited Iran, Libya and Syria in the past year, and all of them are on the U.S. list of terrorism sponsors. Unless one assumes Castro and those around him have lost their minds and plan some sort of national kamikaze mission, it's tough to imagine why Cuba would embark on such a course. CNN comes in loud and clear in Havana, and so have the images of the devastation American military power has inflicted on Afghanistan, halfway around the world. Sitting just 90 miles away, U.S. response to any Cuban aggression would be just as deadly and that much quicker. If anything, in recent months Castro has been a model of good $behavior. A 90 million cash sale of U.S. food to Cuba went through $without incident. Cuba and Midwestern exporters seem eager to do more deals, perhaps to include the sale of medicines. In fact, an amendment to lift the restrictions of private financing of sales to Cuba would have easily passed the House, had it not been for direct White House intervention. In preparation for Carter's visit, Castro also has freed Vladimiro Roca, the highest-profile political dissident in jail. Roca was supposed to be freed soon anyway, but Castro's move was considered a friendly gesture to humor Carter. There is evidence, however, to suggest domestic politics are again driving American policy toward Cuba. Gov. Jeb Bush is running for re-election in Florida, and there is nothing like stoking the flames of anti-Castro sentiment in Dade County to secure the Cuban-American vote. And nothing like a new "threat" to justify continued hostility toward Cuba. In 1962, and during the decades of the Cold War, when the Soviets bankrolled Cuban military excursions worldwide, the Castro government was certainly a threat. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union--and along with it the Cuban economy and its military--any credible threat to the U.S. has evaporated. If the Bush administration has proof of renewed Cuban aggression, let's see it--and develop a prudent response. Otherwise, let this bogeyman die a long-overdue death. Copyright 2002 Chicago Tribune Company ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytmed-05.09.02-13:38:24-9603